Rick Marshall looked as if he had very little sleep, and his face was lined with worry. But whatever his feelings, his voice sounded firm and reassuring; he was doing his best to project confidence to the lonely man on the other side of the Solar System.443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Y7IlBFgsS
"First of all, Dr. Dhala," he began, "we must commend you for the way you handled this extremely dangerous situation. You did exactly the right thing in dealing with an unprecedented and unforeseen emergency.
"We believe we know the cause of your H.A.L. Nine Thousand's breakdown, but we'll discuss that later, as it is no longer a critical problem. All we are concerned with at this time is giving you all possible assistance, so that you can complete your mission.
"And now I must tell you its real purpose, which we have managed, albeit with great difficulty, to keep secret from the general public. You would have been given all he facts as you approached Saturn; this is a fast summary to put you into the picture. Full briefing tapes will be dispatched in the next few hours. Everything that I am about to tell you has the highest security classification.
"Two years ago, we discovered the first evidence for intelligent life beyond the Earth. A pyramid or pylon of hard, gold material, ten feet high, was found buried in the crater Tycho. Here it is."
At his first glimpse of ATM-1, with the spacesuited figures clustering around it, Dhala leaned toward the screen in openmouthed astonishment. In the excitement of this revelation--something which, like every man interested in space, he had half expected all his life---he almost forgot his own desperate predicament.
The sense of wonder was swiftly followed by another emotion. This was stupendous--but what did it have to do with him? There could be only one answer. He brought his speeding thoughts under control, as Rick Marshall reappeared on the screen.
"The most astonishing thing about this object is its antiquity. Geological evidence proves beyond all doubt that it is three million years old. It was placed on the Moon, therefore, when our ancestors were primitive monkey-men.
"After all these ages, one would naturally assume that it was inert. But soon after lunar sunrise, it emitted an extremely powerful blast of radio energy. We think that this energy was merely the byproduct--the backwash, if you will---of some unknown form of radiation, for at the same time, several of our space probes detected an unusual disturbance crossing the Solar System. We were able to track it with great accuracy. It was aimed exactly at Saturn.
"Piecing things together after the event, we decided that the pylon was some kind of solar-powered, or at least solar-triggered, signaling device. The fact that it emitted its pulse immediately after sunrise, when it was exposed to daylight for the first time in three million years, could hardly be a coincidence.
"Yet the thing had been deliberately buried---there's no doubt about that. An excavation thirty-feet deep had been made, the block had been placed at the bottom of it, and the hole carefully filled.
"Now, how did we find it in the first place? Well, the object was easy--suspiciously easy--to find. It had a powerful magnetic field, so that it stood out like a sore thumb as soon as we began to conduct low-level orbital surveys.
"But why bury a solar-powered device 30 feet below ground? We've examined dozens of theories, though we realize that it may be completely impossible to understand the motives of beings three million years in advance of us.
"The preferred theory is the simplest, and the most logical. But it is also the most disturbing.
"You hide a solar-powered device in darkness only if you want to know when it is brought out into the light. In other words, the pylon may be some kind of 'burglar alarm.' And we have triggered it.
"Do the beings who made it still exist? We just don't know. We must assume that a race whose machines still function after three million years may build a society equally long-lasting. And we must assume, until we have proof to the contrary, that they may be hostile. It has often been argued that any advanced culture must be benevolent, but we cannot run any risks.
"Moreover, as the history of our own planet has shown so many times, primitive races have often failed to survive the encounter with higher civilizations. Anthropologists talk of 'culture shock'; we may have to prepare the whole human race for such a shock. But until we know something about the aliens who visited the Moon--and presumably Earth as well---three million years ago, we cannot even begin to make any preparations."
"Your mission, therefore, is much more than a voyage of discovery. It is a scouting trip--a reconnaissance into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. The team under Dr. Kongju has been specially trained for this work; now you will have to manage without them.
"Finally--your specific target. It seems incredible that advanced forms of life can exist on Saturn, or could ever have evolved on any of its moons. We had planned to survey the entire system, and we still hope that you can carry out a simplified program. But now we may have to concentrate on the eighth moon--Japetus. When the time comes for the terminal maneuver, we will decide whether you should rendezvous with this remarkable object.
"Japetus is unique in the Solar System--you know this already, of course, but like all the astronomers of the last 300 years, you've likely given little thought to it. So let me remind you that Cassini---who discovered Japetus in 1671--also observed that it was six times brighter on one side of its orbit than the other. 443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5v7CMe0eNs
"This is an extraordinary ratio, and no scientist has ever been able provide a satisfactory explanation for it. Japetus is so small--about 800 miles in diameter--that even in the lunar telescopes its disk is barely visible. But there seems to be a brilliant, curiously symmetrical spot on one face, and this might be connected with AMT-1. I personally believe that Japetus has been flashing at us like a cosmic heliograph for 300 years, and we've been too mudo na cabeça to understand what it's telling us.443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8wPXrOPgOF
"So now you know your true objective, and can appreciate the vital importance of this mission. We're all praying that you can still provide us with some facts for a preliminary announcement; the secret cannot be indefinitely kept.443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6q517ddbLu
"At this time, we do not know whether to hope or fear. We do not know if, out on the moons of Saturn, you will meet bons homens or bandidos---or only with ruins a thousand times older than Maccu Piccu."443Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWUcLcdgNCa
